Rio Grande - Rio Grande Initiative_Application_2008

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Source: RiGHT Internal Analysis of Property Sales through 2006 Section 6.1 of the SWSI report also suggests key sources of information including the CDOW, TNC, and the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP). The Rio Grande Initiative is partnering directly with the first two and has an on-going collaboration with CNHP for data collection in the Rio Grande Basin. We anticipate that additional data can and will be collected by CNHP on conserved lands in the future. Section 7 of the SWSI report addresses Availability of Existing Water Supplies in the Rio Grande Basin and identifies in Table 7-1 Factors that May Affect Future Availability (Legal and/or Physical) of Supplies in the Rio Grande Basin. This project aims to sustain current uses along the river corridor that are highly interdependent-i.e. flood events and diversions capture water in the "sponge" of riparian wetlands, which is slowly released versus having moved quickly down through the river channel all at once. This then sustains river flows for environmental and recreational benefits (fisheries, wetlands, numerous birds, waterfowl and the lush vegetation used by numerous species of wildlife), and allows for diversions further downstream over a longer irrigation season. While further nonconsumptive needs assessment is now underway through the Rio Grande Basin Round Table (with the SL V WF AC serving as the Nonconsumptive Needs Assessment Subcommittee), our water community already strongly concurs that keeping the river corridor land and associated senior surface water rights intact is critical to sustaining the river's important wetlands and all the benefits they provide. If substantial senior surface water rights were diverted from the river corridor to augment residential development or wells away from the river corridor, the impacts to the riparian wetlands, the healthy functioning of the river, and the CDWR's ability to administer the Rio Grande would be both detrimental and cumulative-and the losses would likely be irreversible. Section 8 of the SWSI report addresses Options for the Rio Grande Basin. In Section 8.1 the report states that: "Solutions for addressing agricultural, recreational and environmental water needs are less well-defined and less certain in their implementation due to a number of factors, such as funding constraints, or an inability or mechanism for the beneficiary to contribute directly." The Rio Grande Initiative is an immediate and proactive solution to meeting current and future consumptive agricultural needs and nonconsumptive recreational and environmental needs. Our process is well defined, nearly certain in its implementation given the GOCO Legacy Grant award, and provides a mechanism for the beneficiaries to contribute directly to the project. Landowners contribute through a charitable donation of a portion of the value of their conservation easement, the land and water are available for agriculture for the long term, and the environmental and recreational water benefits are sustained in perpetuity. In Section 8.2 the SWSI report states that, "it is possible that a failure to implement the Identified Projects and Page 11 of 32 Rio Grande Initiative Janual'Y 2008